


Names Gone Before

by kinosternon



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Foreshadowing, Gen, I have no idea how anyone talks, Trans Male Character, rated for language (just to be on the safe side), self-indulgent headcanons, slightly dodgy pov shifts mid-scene, slow reveal (hopefully), spoilers hinted at but not explicitly stated, trans headcanons, what even are nicknames
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 01:42:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11071413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinosternon/pseuds/kinosternon
Summary: Angus is caught by Tres Horny Boys in the process of destroying evidence on a quick jaunt to his hometown.Taako figures out what's going on, and decides to help him.





	Names Gone Before

**Author's Note:**

> And, you know, sometimes I decide to post an unexpected, only barely-edited Adventure Zone oneshot well past my bedtime, just because. As noted in the tags, I'm going off a spotty memory and sheer vain hope when it comes to the nicknames and how the various characters talk, so I apologize for any inaccuracies. 
> 
> Noticeable dashes of angst, self-deprecation, and some possibly insensitive handling of a somewhat delicate topic. More detailed warnings in the end notes.

"Whatcha doing over there, little guy?"

It's Magnus that notices, which is strange, Angus thinks, because while Magnus is strong and has a fairly high emotional intelligence, he wouldn't have considered him the most observant of the Bureau of Balance's legendary Reclaimers. His brain's running at top speeds for the past minute as he'd used every, considerable, talent at his disposal to get away from the rest of the team without attracting notice. He'd gotten up on tiptoe, as necessary, and gotten the sign down with one assertive tug, but the tearing had been more audible than he'd anticipated, his bounce just a bit too eye-catching, and now he was in a bit of a sticky situation.

He'd heard that this trip surface-side today was a "training mission," but it was obviously just a glorified grocery run, in the wake of complaints about the monotony of the Bureau dinner menu that Angus suspected had finally made their way up to the Director. Who better to pick out the finest ingredients than Taako, after all? Upon hearing this reasoning, Angus had volunteered himself to show them around the downtown area closest to where he'd grown up. He'd cut his teeth there, after all, learning the ins and outs of adventuring, and thus knew all the best places to shop for the freshest, highest-quality ingredients at bargain prices! Besides, he'd said, he wanted to see if there had been any major changes, since he still had "a hint of sentimental fondness for the place."

It was around there in his explanation that the last dregs of Merle's, Taako's, and Magnus's already spare interest had faded once and for all. Which was good—moments like those were the best to sneak in lies.

The truth was, there had been a small doubt, a sense of a vital detail overlooked, creeping up on Angus for a little while, only recently growing to the point of a full-fledged hunch, and he'd wanted to follow up on it. He'd really, really hoped he was wrong, but it had turned out he'd been right.

Even then, he'd thought, with the low level of the danger of the "mission," that he might be able to deal with the problem without alerting the others. He'd just bring back the evidence to the Director, have a brief, extremely awkward chat, and after that the matter could be safely laid to rest, with none of his friends ever the wiser as to the nature of his miscalculation, or even that he'd ever hidden anything about this at all.

Except, of course, it hadn't turned out that way, and even his genius mind, racing at close to maximum velocity, comes up with no way to avoid the fact that he's just been caught red-handed.

"Nothing," he says, and hides the paper he'd just taken down behind his back, crumpling it a bit in his small, sweaty hands.

This, as predicted, does absolutely nothing to stop the three of him from closing in on him.

"You know, I've got a pretty good nose for bullshit," Merle says, trying for off-handed but mainly just sounding petty, "and this don't smell like roses, that's all I'm saying."

"Each of you has a deep, dark mysterious backstory that you don't talk to anyone about," Angus says, pretending his shoulders aren't trying to permanently attach themselves to his ears as he backs up against the wall. "I'm Feyruun's number-one boy detective. Is it really so hard to believe that I might have some private matters of my own?" _(A strapping young man keeps his shoulders wide and his stance assertive!_ He pulls up a mental image of Caleb Cleveland and tries again, unsuccessfully, to relax.)

"You're, like, five, little dude."

He feels his ears heat up, continues to ignore it. "Well, still!"

"Nope, pulling bigger-than-you privileges." Magnus, having closed the distance between them, reaches over and somehow manages to use all his considerable strength on Angus's fingers rather than the paper crumpled between them. Angus shakes them out to make the last of the sting go away, eyes glued to Magnus's face to see if the man can figure out his secret from the clues he's uncovered.

Magnus's face goes very serious, which is in character given what he's seeing, and he smooths the paper out with careful hands. Then he pauses, looks between Angus and the poster once or twice. "…wait, what?" he says finally, apparently still stumped. "Why are you taking down a missing child poster?"

"I, uh…well…" And as simple as that, there's a lie that doesn't even require lying. "That's one of the people the Void Fish is supposed to have erased, sir. Remember all those people I was supposed to be working cases for?"

Magnus frowns, clearly upset by the idea of erasing the memory of a child, but he folds up the poster and starts to hand it back to Angus. Suddenly there's a slender hand between them, though, and the paper is up in front of Taako's face. From his angle, all Angus can see is the elf's eyebrows settling into a frown.

"Yeah, cool story, kiddo," Taako drawls. "Does that explain why this kid has your last name?"

_Busted,_ an entirely unhelpful part of Angus's internal monologue blares at him.

"I. Well. Uh," Angus stammers, and then tries his best to stop stammering because it's a bad habit. "It's a common name," he manages, but without enough assertion—none of them even seem to be paying him any attention anymore. Merle has sidled up behind Taako and is trying to read the poster, only Taako seems to be holding it higher on purpose. He cranes his neck to keep squinting at it, ignoring Merle's grumbling.

Then he stops, gives Angus a once-over, and blinks.

"Oh," Taako says, and then, "ohhhh. Right, okay."

And just like that, he takes the poster, tears it into little pieces, ignoring the others' protests and shoves the pieces into his bag. "Right, cool," he says, as the others continue to curse him out, more surprised than angry. Angus can only stare. "Let's go, amigos. Boy wonder over here took care of this, nothing more to see. We've got a mission, remember?"

"I don't think a food run really counts as a mission," Angus nit-picks automatically, even as he wonders if he sounds as relieved as he feels. "Actually, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that for the Director, getting you all off the moon to "blow off some steam" was an end unto itself…"

"Yeah, too much speculation, not enough boogeying." Somehow, Taako is already several strides ahead of the rest of them. "Are we doing this, or are we doing this? Thought so. Let's go."

* * *

When they return to the BoB headquarters, Merle loses the coin toss (instigated by Taako, who Angus is privately certain cheated) to carry the fruits of their shopping trip to the Bureau kitchen. Magnus gallantly offers to help, and as they leave Taako catches Angus's attention. "Hey, come on, twerp," he says.  "Mission to accomplish."

"What's that, sir?" Angus asks, but he follows despite Taako's lack of an answer, taking three steps for each of Taako's two. At least when he's not with Magnus, Taako walks a little slower, but he still knows his ways around cities, and it shows in the way he dodges well out of the way of the handful of Bureau employees they pass, keeping a brisk, businesslike pace. Taako leads Angus down the hallways to the center of the Bureau, deep down to where the Voidfish lives in its tank. The hallways empty as they approach, and when they arrive at the Voidfish's chamber there isn't anyone inside.

Angus has come down here once or twice, mainly to listen to Johann's music (even if it makes his head hurt afterwards, not being able to remember it properly), but he doesn't do it too often. A good detective knows to tread lightly around secrets.

Which apparently Taako does, too, because he reaches into his bag, and with a whisper of his Mage Hand spell, what every last scrap of the missing child poster drops into Angus's hands.

"Do the honors, kid," Taako says, gesturing at the tank.

"T-thank you, sir," Angus says, eyes on the mound of paper on his hand so he doesn't lose track of any scraps. "I'd thought I'd better talk to the Director about this, but if you think this'll be enough—”

"Day's a-wasting," Taako drawls. "Get that trash out of here, it's been too much trouble already."

"Y-yes, sir." Taako opens the little door to the tank open for him before Angus can figure out how to do it with his hands full, and he carefully lets the slips of paper flutter into the tank. They're caught up the water and swirl aimlessly for a second, before they seem to be drawn together by an invisible force—probably the current, Angus thinks, hypnotized. They disappear into the Voidfish's maw, and for a second Angus thinks he sees two sparks of a flicker. Then they go silent, and the Voidfish continues to drift aimlessly in the tank, as though there had never been any interruption.

Angus looks at the tank for another long moment, as though waiting for something, and then sighs. He turns back to Taako as though he's just remembered the elf was there, and he's waiting, one arm akimbo, the other fiddling with the handle of his umbre-staff.

"I don't know about you, Ango, but as far as I'm concerned this kind of info is on a strictly need-to-know basis." Taako gives him a hard look, one eyebrow raised. "If you thought the Director needed to know, you would've told her from the start, right?"

Angus swallows hard. "Are you mad at me, sir?" he asks.

"Nope," Taako says lightly, popping the _p_ and turning away from the tank, looking thoroughly bored. "Oh, and also—and this is a one-time offer, by the way, no take-backs if you say no—if you wanna tell me anything else about this, now's the time. If not, then great, we can forget this little trip ever happened."

Angus feels a sick doubt sprouting in the pit of his stomach. It isn't that easy—it's _never_ that easy. Still, it's one of the hardest things he's ever done to force out: "Sir, please wait."

"Nah," Taako says. "If we're having this conversation, we're having it in my room. It's drafty down here."

* * *

Taako brews up two old, stale tea bags from the Fantasy Costco when they get to his room. That's it—no snacks, just two chipped sale mugs, but it's more hospitality than Angus is used to, and given the dorms it's an unexpected luxury to have food outside the dining hall anyway. He watches Taako fold gracefully into a lounging position against a mountain of pillows and takes a seat on the floor within an easy line of sight. He ignores the faintly disapproving look Taako gives him at his choice of seat, wondering instead where exactly he'd managed to pilfer all those pillows from.

"I don't have all day," Taako prompts him idly, blowing on his tea. He takes a sip, winces, and blows on it again.

Angus, taking his cue, waits a little bit for his mug to cool before trying to take a sip. "From your reaction, Mister Taaco, I'm guessing you already know most of the story. I must admit, I'm not entirely sure where to start…?"

"Keep it simple. Is this why you've never talked much about your parents?" Taako asks. "I thought you were an orphan, but, well. More fool me, I suppose."

"Yes, sir. They…I told them about me, but it never really seemed to sink in. They didn't think I'd make much of a detective, either, but…well, my grandpa is—er, maybe _was_ would be the better term—getting to the age where he didn't really mind what I did. His memory was going a bit, so when I reminded him I was his grandson, he…"

"He just went with it?"

"Yes, sir." Angus smiles a bit at the memory. The old man had immediately told him off for wearing ratty old oversized rags unbefitting any young gentleman, and had given him a small sack of gold and orders in no uncertain terms not to come back into the house until he stopped looking like a "ratty hooligan." The clothes made the man, Angus had read in multiple places, and in a way Angus McDonald, Boy Detective, had been born that very day. Or born again, at the very least.

But Angus, doubting that Taako wants to know that much detail, keeps it simple. "He let me do what I wanted, sir, as long as it was respectable. He never questioned it at all."

"I see." Taako slurps at his tea, long and loud, and makes a slight face. "Okay, so far this is really straightforward. What was it you wanted to _say_ , exactly?"

Right. The hard part. Angus frowns. "Well, sir, just that…I'm a very good detective, so I notice things. I know this will change the way you see me, and that's okay, but, um, if you could please maybe _try_ keep calling me 'he,' I'd _really_ appreciate it."

For a split second, Taako looks at him with an expression that Angus, self-trained in the art of breaking down micro-expressions, reads as disgust. He quails a bit under the intensity of the look, but then Taako seems to shake himself, face going oddly blank, and then shrugs. "Already done in my book. Really don't see why it needs saying."

"I guess you'd be surprised, sir?" Angus says, more than a little lost. "Then, I guess, if you could maybe not tell the others…? There's a reason I like to keep this secret. You may or may not have guessed this, but people have a way of treating me…a bit differently, if they find out."

"No, I gotcha. I've got a pretty good idea where you're coming from."

Angus pauses, blinks, and then his eyes widen in rising concern. "Sir, are you…oh no, have I been using the wrong pronouns? I haven't, have I? Is 'sir' okay? You'd correct me if it weren't, right?"

"Huh?" It takes Taako a second to catch up, and then he waves his hands back and forth in denial. "No, no, beebs, not _me_. I just…huh. I don't know why I feel like I get what it's like. I just kinda _do_ , somehow."

"Oh. Okay." Angus looks a bit confused, but like he isn't really questioning it. More thoughtful. Which is good, because Taako _is_ kind of questioning it. He knows people like Angus, he's sure of it, but he's met and forgotten a _lot_ of people, and this doesn't feel like an acquaintance-type thing. It's like a dimension in his brain has opened up that he'd forgotten about, neatly cataloguing the things that are a bit tricky for the kid, probably. He can't quite trace where about half of them come from, but whatever, they're assumptions anyway. No big.

Angus is fidgeting, too restless to hide behind his mug. "Look," Taako tells him. "I'm fine with never bringing this up again, if that's what you want. Your prerogative, boyo. But if there's something you want to say, just spill already."

"Well…" Angus frowns. "It's just that, if you don't mind my saying so, sir, you sometimes act…kind of flashy? Not in a bad way, it works really really well for you!" he rushes on, before Taako can give him any sort of response whatsoever. "But it makes me feel better too, because it _could_ be interpreted as feminine but you don't seem to care. And neither do your friends."

"Well, sure," Taako says, shrugging. "Is there a point somewhere or did you just want to sort of awkwardly ramble about other people's style choices?"

"Well, it's just…no matter what, everyone still treats you like _you_. Sometimes I act more feminine than I _want_ to, so it's good to see that your friends respect you just the same."

"The 'awe-inspiring wizard' part doesn't hurt with that," Taako admits, carding a hand through his hair and sighing. "But that's more important for strangers. The important thing is to be yourself. Live your truth, little dude. Worked for me all these years." He tilts his head to one side, putting it together. "Just to be clear, you do actually want to be doing this whole über-polite, dapper boy genius schtick, right? You're not just doing it for…I don't know, boy points?"

"No, sir!" Angus says. Taako might not give a flying fuck about micro-expressions, but he knows Angus—the kid's clever, but not a good enough liar to fake the happy crinkles around his eyes. "I really like being who I am right now."

"Cool. Then we're good, my man." Taako puts a hand on his shoulder, squeezes for a moment before it's gone as casually as if it were never there. "Consider the matter closed. I'll cover you for the others if it comes up again."

Angus blinks rapidly for a second, then says, "Thank you, sir. I'd hate for them to treat me differently. I'd hate to be left out of the games and goofs, not now that I'm finally getting used to them. I hadn't really had the chance to participate in much rowdy boyish roughhousing before I met you guys."

Oh. Taako hadn't really thought before that there might be a reason that Angus has always gone along so readily with their pranks and teasing, but this explains a little more than he's entirely happy with. He makes a mental note, reluctantly, to keep an eye on Magnus's and Merle's teasing. It probably won't be a problem—the little twerp's grown on all of them somehow or other, by this point, even if none of them would admit it aloud. But the others don't know that Angus has even more to fear about fitting in with "the guys" than most little boys.

He finishes his tea in one long gulp. As far as Taako's concerned, that more or less settles things. Except…

"To be clear," he says, testing the waters, "I'm still gonna be calling you Agnes, kiddoleth. Unless you really,  _really_ hate it, in which case—”

"No, that's fine, sir." Angus beams. "That wasn't my birth name."

"Oh good," Taako says. "Because I'd hate it if you'd been stuck with a name like Angus out of an appreciation for wordplay, or something."

"Nope, it's a family name," Angus says, chest puffing up with pride as the barb bounces off entirely.

Yep, Taako decides. He's fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Trans angst, mainly—some of the language and situations depicted may be significantly less than ideal, especially for people already sensitive to the topic. Nothing that should be outright offensive, though, hopefully! 
> 
> Seriously, though, the kid voluntarily wears sweater-vests and talks like a middle-aged professor. I don't consider this a huge leap. (For the record, I say this with a great deal of affection and also personal experience. Sweater-vests and waistcoats are wonderful, wonderful things.)


End file.
